A group of more than 100 former Mount Airy Casino employees appear to be getting closer to obtaining a settlement from their erstwhile employer. The number of plaintiffs has increased steadily for the lawsuit, which accuses the property of failure to pay workers properly under federal and state wage laws. A state judge granted a motion to stay the case, meaning a temporary halt to legal proceedings. Both sides had requested the pause in order to conduct their negotiations.
A smaller group of former employees filed a lawsuit back in February to recoup up to $5 million in unpaid wages. The number of plaintiffs grew to 75 earlier this month, and has has now reached 101.
Mediation date scheduled for July
Because of the motion to stay, all deadlines are pending mediation, which is over a span of 120 days. Mediation is scheduled with a private mediator for July 22.
The motion alluded to the following settlement information:
“The parties are exploring settlement in this matter and are in the process of exchanging data and information allowing the Parties to determine whether early resolution is possible.”
Settlement documents or a joint status report is due on Aug. 22.
Former employees of the casino are claiming Mount Airy made the following violations:
- Improperly “rounding” employees’ clock-in and clock-out times
- Failing to inform tipped employees of the required tip credit provisions before paying less than the federal minimum wage
- Creating a mandatory tip pooling policy by which it requires its table games dealers to pool their tips and then, in violation of federal law, distributing those tips to the table games dealers who earned them as well as to pay the PTO of certain non-tipped manager and supervisor employees
- Miscalculating their employees’ regular rate of pay for overtime purposes
It appears as if the former employees will be getting compensated in some manner. The degree to which it is remains to be seen.
